Calif. pot busts push growing operations to other states

Law enforcement crackdowns on illegal marijuana groves on California’s public lands appear to be pushing some growers into other states, prompting a multi-agency sweep across the West this summer.

Federal authorities on Tuesday say they have seen a decrease in the number of marijuana plants seized in California in recent years, even though the state still accounts for the bulk of the illegal pot harvest.

Through Operation Mountain Sweep in seven Western states, authorities eradicated more than 578,000 marijuana plants from public lands with a street value of more than $1 billion.

Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. attorney based in Sacramento, says local, state and federal agents have seized six times as many plants in California as they have in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington combined.